Bomb explosion rocks Maiduguri police station

A bomb blast at the entrance of the police headquarters of Borno state has killed a number of people mostly police, witnesses said.

A suspected suicide bomber who could not pass the gate of the police headquarters detonated the explosives in his car, killing, yet to be confirmed number of people.

The explosion shattered windows at the police headquarters building along the Damaturu road, opposite Government Secondary school.

Several vehicles within the police headquarters building and outside were damaged.

“Many people, mostly members of the police which include men and women were killed in the explosion,” an eyewitness Ali Alhaji told Reuters.

A police officer at the scene, who could not be named, also confirmed the bomb blast, saying five police vans had been loaded with dead bodies.

This attack on the police is coming less than 24 hours after the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar decried the increasing killings of security operatives, particularly, police officers in the country. The police boss expressed his worry over the killings and disclosed that policies have been put in place to reposition the force towards combating all forms of crimes and criminality.

Earlier in the day, the commander of the Joint Task force (JTF),  Victor Ebhaleme, confirmed that another suspected suicide bomber was killed by the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) he was trying to plant at Gidan Dambe area of the city at about 6:00am.

Mr. Ebhaleme said that when his officers  arrived the Gidan Dambe explosion scene, “they found a man we believe to be a member of Boko Haram, dismembered by the explosion.”

He added that preliminary investigation has shown that he was killed when he was trying to plant the device.

The explosion damaged several cars and buildings around the offices of Mansur Motors around Gida Ganje.

Borno state has been the focal point of the insurgency by fundamentalist sect Boko Haram which has staged several attacks against police stations, prisons and a number of government institutions across states in northern Nigeria.